Authors often go through several working titles before settling on one. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (Bookshop|Amazon) was originally Trimalchio in West Egg, Trimalchio being an ostentatious nouveau riche character in an ancient Roman work...
A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, listener has been pondering the saying It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and specifically whether she uses it correctly. The expression usually appears as It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, means that...
A Charlotte, North Carolina, shares her granddaughter’s adorable misunderstanding of a word. When a breeze was blowing, the little girl would say it’s winding (rhyming more or less with “wending” rather than “minding”). This is part of a complete...
Michael from Jones, Michigan, says he was stationed on a U.S. Army base in Germany in the early 1960s. If there was a gust of cold wind, a fellow soldier would say the hawk’s out. This expression is largely associated with Chicago, Illinois, where...
A brickfielder is a hot, dry wind in Southern Australia. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “A Blowing Brickfielder” Grant, do you know what a brick fielder is? A center fielder who doesn’t have to move when a pot fly comes their way...
In Japanese, sakura means “cherry blossom.” When the spring wind blows through the blooming trees, you have a sakura-fubuki 桜吹雪 or “cherry blossom snowstorm.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Japanese “Sakura-Fubuki” Means a Cherry...
